


unmake of me what you will

by mollivanders



Category: Lost
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-01
Updated: 2010-05-01
Packaged: 2017-10-30 11:12:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/331138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mollivanders/pseuds/mollivanders
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU of Season 5. </p><p>Jack is an obvious misfit in the Dharma Initiative (he takes the least to peace and harmony), so Sawyer puts him on security detail and lets him wander the pylon borders where he won’t bother anyone. For a while, Jack isn’t bothered either.</p>
            </blockquote>





	unmake of me what you will

**Author's Note:**

> **Title: unmake of me what you will**  
>  Rating: PG-13  
> Characters: Jack/Eloise, Sawyer/Juliet, Miles, Daniel  
> Spoilers/Warnings: AU after the Season 4 finale but references some events from Season 5 in a different way.  
> Summary: Jack gets left on the island but this time, he tries leaving.  
> Disclaimer: LOST belongs to _ABC_ , I own nothing.

Jack is an obvious misfit in the Dharma Initiative (he takes the least to peace and harmony), so Sawyer puts him on security detail and lets him wander the pylon borders where he won’t bother anyone. For a while, Jack isn’t bothered either.

He watches from a distance as Sawyer and Juliet move in together, as Miles struggles with Dr. Chang, as Sawyer and Jin search for the ones they’d lost.

(The first time Jack sees Eloise is in the pre-dawn haze of dying night, a rifle slung over her shoulder. She’s looking straight at him, unafraid, evaluating, and he’s frozen in place. He’s not sure which of them has crossed the border and is willing to bet she’s not sure either.)

Juliet’s the first to notice Jack’s around less and less, missing at meals and from his house. She asks James to check on him and it takes him a day to find Jack on the cameras, walking back into camp from the enchanted jungle. 

Walking from beyond the pylons.

(The second time Eloise sees Jack he’s deliberately crossed the line, curiosity piqued. She spies him watching their camp from a hill and follows him back to the boundary where she corners him against a tree and demands answers. They meet on purpose after that.)

Miles and Jack have nothing to talk about except the crappy Dharma beer and how there’s not enough soap in the world to wash away the idea of Horace and Amy having sex. Miles doesn’t pressure him and Jack never offers, not until the night they mix some weird hippie drugs with their beer. Miles is rambling about how afraid the Dharma folk are of what lies beyond the pylons and Jack shakes his head. 

_We overestimated the Others. They’re the same as us,_ he says. Miles shrugs and pretends it’s normal to say shit like that.

(Jack knows it can’t last, was never meant to happen in the first place, knows if Richard Alpert or Charles Widmore knew what he knew, he’d be a dead man. It doesn’t stop him from meeting her by streams and rock cliffs, dangling their feet over empty space and time. They don’t talk much – they stare out across the island more than anything else – but sometimes she covers his hand with hers and grips it like he’s the only constant in this place. In a way, he supposes he is.)

Dan leaves on the sub a year after they arrive and Jack knows a man who’s not running when he sees one. Jack knows Dan will be back but part of him doubts they’ll be here to greet him, so he pulls Dan aside from the rest of the group, asks what to do if the island dislodges again. He gets a confused look in return and shakes his head. _Never mind. Good luck._

Later, Dan will understand what he meant, and what to do next.

(Eloise pushes Jack down on the grass, kissing him like it’s an experiment and he pulls her down with him. Perhaps because they have so little in common except how much they have to lose, they don’t waste time with anger or confusion or guilt. Being temporary refugees from lives they didn’t choose and lives they don’t know how to live is enough.

At their side, their guns lie forgotten with their clothes.)

Sawyer knows when Jack’s about to do something stupid. Always has, always will. He knows the doc’s the same way about him so he sends Jin after him, but when he comes back he doesn’t have the words to tell Sawyer what he saw.

It bothers Sawyer more than he’d like. He keeps an eye out.

(Jacks points out the Orchid to Eloise one afternoon, tells her it’s their way out of this time and off this island. She smiles shrewdly at him. _It can’t be that simple,_ she argues when he wraps his arms around her, inhaling her scent. _Says who?_

They wait until nightfall before they explore the site, find the wheel he wasn't expecting. _I’ve heard about this,_ Eloise confides in him on the way back, hand curling around his. She won’t meet his eyes, stares into the inky horizon.

As he leaves he hears her call out to him, _I thought you were leaving, Jack?_ He turns to look at her but she’s already disappeared into the forest.)

Jack takes nothing with him and writes no note. He doesn’t think he needs one; thinks he and everyone he loves (everyone who doesn’t belong here) will travel with them until he can turn the wheel again. Everything else about this island has been that simple (it takes what you need).

His time delay on the wheel works, almost. The island skips – he skips alone.

(The island’s not done with him yet. He isn’t allowed to leave; he's not allowed to stay.)

Jack tries to find his way back to the wheel, knows he has to stop the skipping before he dies, but he lost his way days ago. For the first time he actually misses the damn initiative and porch nights with Miles. Misses other things too.

But for the first time in years, he has the time for emotions like anger and confusion and guilt. He takes them all at once, thrashes his way through the jungle.

He sees her, once, in deep night. She’s leaving someone when she spies him. _I thought you were leaving, Jack?_ she asks, smiling. _I thought you were going home._ He doesn’t have time to tell her; just smiles back like she’s not the first person he’s seen in god knows how long and says _I wanted to stay._

They’re granted this one small mercy. Before she walks into camp him she asks, _Do you think it’s a boy? Or a girl?_ and he laughs hopelessly. _Whatever you want, Ell._

The last thing she tells him is _Don’t be too long. I can’t wait forever._

He finds the well in the next flash and turns the wheel, praying against prayer it works this time.

(It does.)

_Finis_


End file.
